So lately I have been doing some graphics stuff, using DirectX in C++, but I want to expand my project by adding a form of UI. I don't want to have to create the core functionality of the UI myself (Buttons, Labels, forms, ect.) so I have been thinking about using C# as a sort of wrapper, to enable the usage of those UI elements. I've been looking at different ways to do this, and have found two different ways, Use C#, but have my C++ code in a .DLL and call it that way, or use C++ / CLI. Now I'm not entirely sure if I would be able to use DirectX with either of these options, as I haven't tried it yet, but I want to know what the best decision would be for this.

I don't exactly need or want all the features of C# or .Net, all i really want is an easy way to provide UI that could allow me to edit values of objects in my Rendering Program. I have no problem with doing the UI from scratch myself, but wanted to get some more opinions on the matter.

Currently, there are two well known frameworks for UI that allow fast iteration but are a little bit complex to get it correct from my experience:

C#: https://github.com/SonyWWS/ATF

C++: http://www.qt.io/ / http://download.qt.io/official_releases/qt/5.6/5.6.0/

I would suggest you to use CEGUI. It's also a bit complicated to get into it but it's (I think) by far the best GUI framework. It has a huge community and it's really detailed. You can almost do everything with it..

I only use CEGUI, in each of my games and I never had problems before, that I couldn't solve with the framework.

It is also written in C++

Here is a link:

http://cegui.org.uk/